say.
“I needed you to look over something for approval. I was going to email it to you, but I really thought it needed to be in person. After everything we’ve been through, I owe you that much.”
He extended the envelope. I took it.
“You don’t owe me anything,” I muttered, opening the envelope, doing my level best not to cry.
“Yes, I do.”
But I didn’t speak, didn’t look up. My eyes were locked on the packet in my hand, my heart climbing my throat.
The chapter title was “Forgiveness.”
I read so fast, I had to force myself to slow down, to read every word.
Wynn had come to the fae palace, seeking Aislinn out after she disappeared. He’d rejected her, thinking she’d betrayed him. But her machinations had been to save him. He just hadn’t realized it until it was almost too late. He knelt at her feet, her hands in his.
“I have collected sins, kept them in coffers, counted them in silence as markers for my pain. Those sins have haunted me, ruined me. Those sins have claimed my kingdom. I have walked through fire in search of the relic that would save us, that would give me absolution. But there is no relic.”
Fear and shock gripped Aislinn. All they had worked for, all they had endured, for nothing. “It is gone?”
“No,” he said softly. “It is you.”
“Me?” she breathed, grasping for understanding.
“My absolution is found in you. The key, the truth, was found in abandoning what I’d thought I knew. Only one power exists that could harm me—my love for you. And my love is what will save us all. Forsaking you is the sin I will not survive, cannot forgive. Tell me I am not too late. Tell me there is still a chance, and I will rewrite the stars. I will shake the heavens and mark them with your name.” He reached for her face and brushed a sparkling tear from her cheek. “Forgive me, Aislinn, though I do not deserve it. Because without you, I am lost.”
I tore my eyes away and met Tommy’s. His mask had cracked, and I saw his fears, his sorrow, his love.
“You finished it,” I whispered, swallowing my tears, unable to let myself believe that art still imitated life, that Wynn’s feelings were Tommy’s.
“Just now. I’ve been up all night. As soon as it was finished, all I could do was shower and come here. To you.”
I smiled up at him. “I’m just so happy for you, Tommy. You did it. In one month, you did it.”
“Only because of you.” He took a step toward me, his eyes smoldering. “I didn’t know how to end it. Didn’t know what to write. For days, I sat staring at a blank page, waiting. But I couldn’t write the end. Not until I knew what to do about us.”
My smile faded as he edged the truth. “Oh. Yes, of course.” The disappointment in my voice was impossible to contain. I tried. “What did you decide?”
Another step. The tilt of his lips. He reached for my hand. “That I love you.”
My heart stopped painfully, a dead thunk in my chest. “After everything I’ve done?”
He took the envelope, tossing it on the couch without looking away from me. “You weren’t the only one who was wrong. I know you. I know every corner of your heart. I was just too upset to see beyond myself to the truth. You, Amelia Bane, are the purest thing I have ever known. And if I lost you, I would never forgive myself. I would never escape it. Because I love you, Amelia. Forgive me for not trusting you with Janessa. Forgive me my anger, my pain, the time I needed to see reason. I will rewrite the stars. I will shake the heavens and mark them with your name. Because without you, I am lost.”
Tears spilled down my cheeks. “Forgive you? It was me who was wrong. I never should have doubted you.”
He thumbed the cool track of my tears. “Swear to me you’ll always come to me. Promise me you’ll always hear my side.”
“Always.”
“Forever?”
My brows knit together. “Forever?” I echoed.
He took me in his arms, cupped my cheek, gazed into my face. “Marry me again. Marry me forever. Let me love you until the end of days. Save my kingdom. Save me, my angel. Marry me and be mine. I’m already yours.”
With the sweetness of deliverance, I smiled up at my husband and whispered the word I would always say when